A disk drive assembly, such as may be found on a computer tower, for example, may include a backplane that is adapted to receive one or more computer hard disk drives. The backplane may include a respective electrical connector for each disk drive that the backplane is adapted to receive. Each disk drive may include a complementary electrical connector corresponding to the connector on the backplane that is adapted to receive the disk drive. Typically, the connectors on the backplane are plug connectors and the connectors on the backplane-mating side of the disk drive are receptacle connectors.
Each hard disk drive may be guided into the backplane via a rail system. For each disk drive, a pair of complementary rails extends along the inner sides of the disk drive assembly housing. The disk drives may be slid into the backplane along the rails. The disk drive may be “plugged in” by sliding the disk drive along the rails far enough for the disk drive connector to mate with the backplane connector.
Sometimes, it is desirable to program a disk drive for custom applications. Such programming often requires the use of custom hardware and software components. Accordingly, custom disk drives are typically required. Customizing disk drives for every application is expensive. It would be desirable, therefore, if a mechanism were available to enable manufacturers of such custom disk drives to use commercial, off-the-shelf disk drives for custom applications, and avoid the need for customizing the disk drives themselves.